Oliver Bearman has no ceiling on his potential according to his Haas boss, who also hailed the growing maturity of the British driver.
The 21-year-old has delivered some significant highs for Haas in his two full seasons with the American team, most notably a staggering fourth place in Mexico at the end of last season before a fifth in China at the start of this.
Bearman, who remains part of the Ferrari academy and has made no secret of his desire to one day race full-time for the Scuderia, has underlined his status as one of the most promising drivers on the grid.
His team principal Ayao Komatsu sees no reason why Bearman could not reach the very top of the sport.
"I haven't seen the ceiling with Ollie," Komatsu told the Press Association.
"I'd say I don't see any limitation but I don't want to sit here, when he hasn't even been on the podium once, and say he's world championship material.
"Only when you get to the next level, let's say when he has a competitive car, when he can challenge for podiums consistently or race wins consistently, only in that scenario, you can start seeing, is he really world champion material or not?
"When he gets there, I'm sure he will excel."
Komatsu also lauded Bearman's role within Haas and gave an example of his positive mindset, motivating the team on the radio following a pit-stop error in Miami where its early-season form was halted.
"In terms of his personality, when things are going wrong, he just doesn't get frustrated," Komatsu added.
"For a 21-year-old kid, okay, he's an adult, but still a kid. One of the youngest members of the team, having an incredibly frustrating race [in Miami], not his own fault, but he's done his best.
"And then we messed up the pit-stop as well, so he got stuck all the way through. He couldn't do anything.
"But instantly, he switched, 'okay how can I motivate this team?' That shows the amazing awareness and maturity, I think."
Haas are the smallest team on the grid but have more than held its own since entering the sport in 2016.
But in a big-budget sport, the U.S. team under the ownership of Gene Haas are currently unable to match its rivals when it comes to upgrades due to not having the funding to reach Formula 1's cost-cap.
Komatsu, who has been at the helm since 2024, knows that is holding it back but heaped praise on his team for competing against the very best -- with Haas still seventh out of the 11 teams on the grid.
"If I look at my team, honestly, I feel like they have both hands and legs tied behind their back," he added.
"You honestly cannot explain, at the start of this season, how unbelievably they managed to produce the car, reliability and performance.
"But on the chassis side, we were better than Red Bull at the start of the season.
"But again, Red Bull being Red Bull, in the April period, the amount of performance they put on the car was insane, right? But we had no right to be where we were."
